"Why Doesn't Your Momma Wash You with Fairy Soap?"
Chicago, St. Louis, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore: The N.K. Fairbank Company, 1898. [EPHEMERA] [TRADE CARD] [ADVERTISING] [STIGMITIZING LANGUAGE] [STIGMATIZING IMAGE]. Gray Lithograph Co., New York, printer.
5" x 3 3/4"; stiff trade card, printed both sides; chromolightograph pictorial of a Black child and a white child holding a bar of "Fairy" soap on the front; advertiser's copy on the rear; light stain on rear; very good plus. Item #2221
"FREE!! On account of the great success of our booklet, entitled 'Fairy Tales,' and the steadily increasing demand for it, we have gotten out another edition, larger and handsomer than the first, with entirely different verses and illustrations. If you will send us ONE (1) FAIRBANK'S FAIRY SOAP WRAPPER along with your name and address, we will mail you free of charge on of these beautiful booklets."
This is the text of the first part of the advertisement by the N.K. Fairmank Company advertising the children's books given as a premium for buying their soap. The overtly racist message is in both the illustration and the wording on the front of the card. The illustration pictures a young Black girl with dark skin in a torn and dirty dress addressed by a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white child in a clean dress saying "Why doesn't your Mamma wash you with Fairy Soap?"
Price: $50.00